Swim Issue with Feet/Kick

Can you post some video?

Feet sinking usually means head / chest are up.  Are you pulling your head up too much when you breathe?  Try a couple strokes without breathing and see if you're able to hold a better position in the water.

As to the toe flexibility: some sets with fins can help.  Also I used to sit on my knees a bit while watching tv.  It's an easy way to stretch - just do it carefully at first.

I can try posting a video.  Maybe I can bribe my kids into taking one.

I thought maybe my hips were too low so I tried swimming "downhill" but my teacher said my head was TOO LOW!  He said that's unusual so I made my head flat and he said that was better.

It will also help you to stretch your ankles. You may have very stiff ankles.

One easy way is to sit on your feet with you heels under your bum. you can do this while watching tv, reading, etc.

If this is difficult for you, you def have stiff ankles

Here is an excellent article from tjfry:

?http://badig.com/2009/02/improving-your-flutter-kick/

Thanks for posting this article. I've been having the same issues with my kick but it's slowly been improving.

Yes thanks for posting it.  I have to get some flippers (maybe will hit WalMart) and give them a try. 

To me sounds like a balance issue and your toes not pointing is just minor problem.  If your kick is really slowing you down, then your legs are dropping.  I'm not sure I would agree with your instructor to throw you on a buoy or use fins.  If you have good balance then your kick only helps you maintain form not to move you forward. The buoys and fins will just give you a false sense of swimming in balance, but you need to learn without these tools. 

I know this is frustrating especially starting.  You want to power your way through the water, instead of gliding through it.  Once you get this down, you will find you barely kick, unless you are purposely doing a speed set.  These tools help you save energy for your upper body to focus on upper body skills learning.  

I swam for a year and moved from beginner to intermidate to where my hips dropped but not as bad as a newbie.  I met an ex-pro triathelete who swam with me for 30 minutes. He grave one drill to work on that will help give you that balance feeling, which fixes your lower half.  Swim slowly with one arm forward on your side, press down with your arm pit/chest area until you feel air on your hips/legs.  The important aspect is the feeling in your arm pit/chest area...it is the feeling of when you are in balance.  It will take awhile, maybe lowering head, maybe raising head, maybe be raising arm entry, maybe lowering arm entry, might have to kick a tad more to maintain a little speed..but don't over kick.... play with your body position...the feeling will feel like your arm pit/chest area is a fishing bobbier or jug of air...you can push down and your lower body will rise.. .  Once you imprint that feeling and identify with it, when you swim normal you will glide, stroke, head align, rotate shoulders, raise hips for that  feeling.  It will feel like a light bulb went off once you get it... I dropped at least 30 seconds from my 100ms just getting my balanced fixed, besides all the energy savings.  

Its sort of weird position for me,  before meeting this guy and after.  Once you recognize, learn this position, and take advantage of it, you won't go back.  Its hard to convince people, they just have to see the benefits themselves of swimming with balance.  You can tell them about the topic, hips up and such, but they need that feeling and see the wow for themselves.  The other day, I swam some 100s next to a guy.  I was swimming my slow pace, very slow stroke count, mostly focusing on glide, and was swimming a little faster then the guy next to me who had a high stroke count, really fighting the water.  He was huffing and puffing. I was relaxed and just in the zone.

This is an awesome tip!  I have started doing some drills to help improve my balance and buoyancy in the water, and this one is has been really helpful! 

Well I went to the local swim store and bought a pair of "Sprint Vertex II Training Fins."

I will be trying them out in the pool tonight...keeping my fingers crossed that this will help.

This is an excellent description! Helped me remember what to feel for on today's swim, and it went rather well. For me at least.

Is there a video that can be referenced to see the drill being done properly. I have seen a few but they seem to be done a little differently than what is being explained here.

UPDATE:

I went to the pool and did several laps with the flippers.   Then several without.  Repeated with/without like any other drill.

Indeed I was much faster and able to just do two kicks per stroke with the fins.

However I noticed that my natural tendency was to swim "flat" and not side-to-side like you are supposed to.

When I took them off I seemed to go back to my usual crappy kick form and slow stroke.

So I am not sure if these have helped me.  It's hard to judge.

My main concern is that when I try to swim with the normal body twist, the fins work against this...in this way I am concerned that they are "worse" than swimming with a pull buoy, which still allows me to twist from side to side with each stroke.

Comments?  Suggestions?

p.s. I will try the drill chenny suggested, although I would also be interested in seeing a video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_y3l7ycALw

@ 2:24 they have a nice view of it, but not sure if this is the exact one you are looking for.  

If I understand this right, the biggest thing this type of fins will do is help improve the ankle flexibility & strength. Your kick form isn't really going to get any better from them, especially not from 1 session. Hopefully one of the fish can help add more to this. Not sure you really want to try swimming or just stick with kick sets in them for the reasons you saw.

I'm also curious if any of them have tried the Aquasphere Alpha Fins. I've heard they can actually help this, and they feel significantly different than more traditional fins.

Are you trying to get a better kick or trying to figure out rotation? Two much different things. If you want to work on getting your ankles to be more flexible, then put on the fins and kick like you stole something. If you want to learn rotation, take the fins off and focus on some very different things...but that's probably a new thread altogether.

Well what I am really trying to do is swim faster with less effort.  My instructor at the Y said that the reason I am pretty fast with the pull buoy but slow without is that my kick is slowing me down, my toes are pointed towards the bottom of the pool and I need learn to point them.

I am not 100% convinced this is my problem, but clearly there is something going on if I can swim 30% faster with a pool buoy, right?

BTW for comparison purposes, I can run a few 8 minute miles, I can maintain 19-20MPH on my bike for an hour, but my 100m times in the pool are around 2:40 which from what I can tell means my swim is not good at all in comparison to run and bike times.